Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

The text begins with a quote from Albert Einstein to the effect that all science may be imperfect, but it is still the most valuable tool we have for understanding our world. Sagan catalogues some of the many forms of pseudoscience that masquerade as New Age enlightenment, old time religion, and simple dogma. Some of these popular pseudo scientific beliefs range from the legend of Atlantis to Transcendental Meditation, Soviet communism to Biblical literalism. Sagan stipulates that these argue in the face of scientific evidence.

Those who accept unquestioningly the astonishing but unproven myths of popular culture allow themselves to be dupes, taken in by the rising tide of irrationality that is as far from science as humanly possible. A bit of skepticism, or the ability to apply some simple tools for truth testing, is very simple and takes no more...